Tongues and the Interpretation of Tongues

To another [are given] different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.
—1 Corinthians 12:10
The manifestations of tongues and the interpretation of tongues are so closely related that it would
be very difficult to deal with one without the other, and I believe that it will be very profitable for
you if I explain the two together.
Why tongues? Why has God brought this gift into operation? There is a reason. If there were not a
reason, it would not be there.
I love the concept of “God over all, through all, in all.” I love the concept that God has all power
over all the powers of the Enemy—in the heavenlies, on the earth, and under the earth. Where can
you go where He is not present (Ps. 139:7–12)?
Why did God design it all? You must see with me that the gift of tongues was never in evidence
before the Holy Spirit came.
Interpretation of Tongues
The Spirit leads and will direct every thought, and so

bring into your hearts the fruit, until the fruit in your own life will be a manifestation that God is
truly in you.
May the Lord grant that to us. That is a very important word.
The old dispensation was very wonderful in prophetic utterances. Every person, whoever he is, who
receives the Holy Spirit will have prophetic utterances in the Spirit unto God or in a human
language supernaturally coming forth, so that all the people will know that it is the Spirit.
This is the reason we want all the people filled with the Holy Spirit: they are to be prophetic. When
a prophecy is given, it means that God has a thought, a word in season, that has never been in
season before—things both new and old. The Holy Spirit brings things to pass!
So when God fulfilled the promise, when the time was appointed (and it is a wonderful
appointment), the Holy Spirit came and filled the apostles. The gift that had never been in operation
before came into operation that wonderful day in the Upper Room, and for the first time in all of
history, men were speaking in a new order; it was not an old language, but language that was to be
interpreted.
This is very profound because we recognize that God is speaking. No man understands it. The
Spirit is speaking, and the Spirit opens the revelation that they will have,

without adulteration; God’s word flows through the whole place.

Tongues are a wonderful display of this; they are to revive the people; they are to give new depths
of thought.
If you ever want to know why the Holy Spirit was greatly needed, you will find it in the third
chapter of Ephesians. You will be amazed. The language is wonderful. Paul said that he was “the
least of all the saints ” (Eph. 3:8), and yet God had called him to be a “ minister ” (v. 7). His
language is wonderful, and yet he felt in his heart and life that there was something greater, that the
Spirit had him, and he bowed his knees unto the Father (v. 14).
You cannot find in all the Scriptures words with such profound fruit as those that ring through the
verses of Paul’s remarkable prayer in the Holy Spirit. He prayed “that you may be filled with all
the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:19), and “that you...may be able to comprehend with all the saints”
(vv. 17–18). He prayed that you may be able to ask and think, and think and ask, and that it will not
only be abundantly but that it will also be “exceeding abundantly above all that” you can “ask or
think” (v. 20).
There is a man closing down and the Holy Spirit praying.
Interpretation of Tongues

To this end He brings you together that He might pour into you the hidden treasure, for it is in you.
God has refined you, first cleansed you, made you just like a vessel that He might dwell in you and
make all His acquaintance with you, that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit should be primary
over you, and you should just be exalted in Him, not in yourself, but He should have the glory.
The Reason for Tongues
You may have heard that three years ago I was in Los Angeles. God’ s blessing was upon those
meetings. Some of you remember blessings received. But since the time I left, you have not known
what I have done, because you have not been with me; you do not live with me. I might have lost
anointing or favor with God. I might be like many people today who have lived holy lives and have
received holy language, but now are living in a backslidden condition, a life that is not worthy of
the language. There are people today who have lived holy lives, preached sanctification, and their
language has been helpful, but something has come in the way. They have kept their language.
They have lost their zeal and fire, but they still hold onto the language. This can take place in
anyone’s life. So I ask you, you who think you stand, “take heed lest [you] fall” (1 Cor. 10:12).
You cannot play with this.
I would like you to know that the speaker is no good

unless he judges himself every day. If I do not judge myself, I will be judged (1 Cor. 11:31). It is not
sufficient for me to have your good word; I must have the Master’s good word. It is no good to me
if I look good to you. If there were one thing between me and God, I would not dare to come onto
this platform unless I knew that God had made me holy, for they who bear the vessels of the Lord
must be holy unto the Lord (Isa. 52:11). And I praise God because I know:
His blood can make the vilest clean, His blood can make the vilest clean, His blood avails for me,
His blood avails for me.
Holiness! Whiteness! Purity! Zeal! Interpretation of Tongues
“Grieve not the Holy Spirit whereby you are saved,” but “let everything be done decently and in
order” so that God will have preeminence in all things and Christ will reign over the house, even
His house, of which He says, “Whose house you are if you hold fast the profession of your faith
without doubting.” So God is bringing us this morning to this holy place to bring us to see that we
must only obey the Spirit.
When a Prophet Is out of God’s Will

As I said, you do not know what has taken place in my life since I was here. When the good people
of the Angelus Temple wired to see if I could give them June or July, they did not know that I was
still living in the center of God’s holy will. Because I am only a man, it is possible that I may have
grieved the Spirit. When I got up to speak here, what I said might have been only formal language
without unction, nothing that would move the people. In this type of situation, someone in the place
—and this is what tongues are for—someone in the place who is hungry for God and cannot rest
because he is not getting the cream of the truth would begin travailing and groaning in the Spirit
and speaking in tongues. Another person would travail in the same way, receiving the interpretation
of these tongues, and would arise and give that interpretation, thus lifting the people where the
prophet could not because he was out of the will of God.
To Know the Mind of God
Then, you ask, what about situations in which you are preaching and prophesying and we are all
getting blessed, and then we have tongues?
From time to time as I speak, I am so full of the glory and of the joy that my body is more full than
my language can express. Then, instantly, the Spirit pours forth His word in tongues, and the power
of God just lifts the whole place into revelation and words of life far beyond where

we were.
Therefore, the church is to come together so that in the Spirit, the power of God can fall on Mary or
John or William or Henry and move them, until, with the power of God moving through them, the
people get the mind of God.
How to Use Tongues Correctly
In the fourteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians, we have very definite instructions about tongues:
If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two or at the most three, each in turn, and let one interpret.
But if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in church, and let him speak to himself and to
God.(1 Cor. 14:27–28)
There are three types of tongues, and the spiritual law concerning them is laid down in the
Scriptures. But before we come to that, we must understand verse thirtytwo of 1 Corinthians 14, or
else there will be no success in this place: “ And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the
prophets.”
Yield to the Holy Spirit
Unless you adhere to this word, every assembly where you are will be broken up, and you will
cause trouble. Until you come to a right understanding of the Scriptures, you will never be pleasing
to God. You are not to consider, under any circumstances, that, because you have a

spiritual gift, it is right for you to use that gift, unless the unction of the Spirit is upon you.
You have to be very careful that you never use tongues and interpretation in confusion with
prophecy. When prophecy is going forth and the truth is being heard and all the people are
receiving it with joy and are being built up, then there is no room for tongues or interpretation. But
just at the time when the language in my heart seems too big to express, then tongues come forth
and God looses the whole thing, and we get a new purpose in that.
So you who have this wonderful gift of tongues must see to it that you never break in where the
Spirit is having perfect rightofway. But when the Spirit is working with you and you know there is
a line of truth that the Lord desires to express, then let the name of God be glorified.
You see, God wants everything to be in perfect order by the Spirit. That is why Paul said, “ If
anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two or at the most three” (1 Cor. 14:27). You will never find
me speaking if three have spoken before me. And you will never find me interpreting any word in
tongues if three have spoken already. This is in order to keep the bonds of peace in the body so that
the people will not be weary, because there are some people who have known nothing about what is
right.
Unless you come to the Word of God, you will be in

confusion and you will be in judgment. God does not want you to be in confusion or in judgment,
but He wants you to be built up by the Scriptures, for the Scriptures are clear.
If the Lord reveals truth to me, and if I have said anything previously in relation to this that has not
been absolutely scriptural, I will no longer say it. I allow God’s Word to be my judge. If I find that
anything I have said is not scriptural, I repent before God. As God is my Judge, I never say
anything unless I believe it is the sincere truth. But if I find out later that it is not exactly in the most
perfect keeping with the Word of God, I never say it again.
I believe there is a place to come to in which, after we have repented of a thing, we never have to
repent of that thing anymore. I pray that God will give us that kind of superabundant revelation of
common sense. It is because there is not a superabundant revelation of common sense that
everybody is using nonsense. May the Lord help us to be true to God first; then, if we are true to
God, we will be true to ourselves. Let God be first in the choice of our desires and our plans. Jesus
must be glorified.
In 1 Corinthians 14:30 we read: “If anything is revealed to another who sits by, let the first keep
silent. ” I hope that someday the church will so completely come into its beauty that if I am
preaching and you have a revelation on that very thing, a deep revelation from God, and if you
stand, I will stop preaching at that moment. Why? Because

the Scripture says that if, when a prophet is speaking, anything is revealed to someone in the
audience, let the first hold his peace and then let that other one speak.
Then the Scripture says, “For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be
encouraged” (v. 31). This refers to the one who is preaching. He may be led to hold his peace while
one in the midst of the congregation speaks his line of thought that is divinely appointed; then, after
he finishes, another may have a prophecy, and he may get up, and so on, until you may have several
who have prophesied and you have such revelations in this manner that the whole church is ablaze.
I believe that God is going to help us so that we might be sound in mind, right in thought, holy in
judgment, separated unto God, and one in the Spirit. Imagine all the people in this place being
comforted and edified and going away from the church feeling that they have been in the presence
of God, just because they have been obedient to the will of God.
Allow me to say this, and then you judge it afterward. You are not in the right place if you do not
judge what I say. You are not to swallow everything I say; you are to judge everything I say by the
Scriptures. But you must always use righteous judgment. Righteous judgment is not judging
through condemnation, but it is judging something according to the Word of God. Righteous
judgment is not focused on criticism, but righteous judgment judges the

truth of something. In this way, the church may receive edification so that all the people may be
built up according to the Word of God. That is the right judgment.
Perhaps not everyone will affirm and believe what I have to say about this. However, I truly affirm
and believe, because God has thus revealed it to me, that the words “Let there be two or at the most
three, each in turn ” (1 Cor. 14:27) mean that very often the speaker will not have finished his
message after giving the first insight. So often I have seen in an assembly of believers that the first
person has spoken and the Spirit of the Lord has been mightily upon him, but the anointing is such
that he did not finish his message with his first insight of truth, and he realizes that he is not through
with that message. He speaks in the Spirit again, and we feel that the tide is higher. Then he speaks
a third time, and the tide is higher still, and then he stops.
This has led me to believe that “ each in turn ” (1 Cor. 14:27) means that one person may be
permitted to speak in tongues three times in one meeting. In our conferences in England, we very
often have nine utterances in tongues, but there will only be three people speaking. You can have
nine, but it is not necessary unless the Lord is prompting it. Sometimes I find that the Spirit will
take us through in prophecy in such a way that there will not be more than one, sometimes two
people speaking. If I am correct, and I believe I am correct when I say this, when we are full of

prophecy, the Spirit has taken our hearts and has moved them by His power. When this happens to
me, I speak as fast as I can, but I am not expressing my own thoughts. The Holy Spirit is the
thought, the language, and everything; the power of the Spirit is speaking. And when the power of
the Holy Spirit is speaking like this, there is no need for tongues or interpretation because you are
getting right from the throne the very language of the heart and the man. Then when the person’s
language gives out, the Spirit will speak and the Lord will give tongues and interpretation, and that
will lift the whole place.
“At the most three.” Don’t say four or five, but three at the most. The Holy Spirit says it.
Now, three things are important before we go further. Three Types of Tongues
There are three types of tongues, and this is where the confusion comes in; this is where the people
judge you, and this is where people have gone wrong.
I know, and every person who interprets tongues knows, that there is an intuition of divine
appointment at this time. Every person who has been given the interpretation of tongues when they
have had nothing before them except the glory of God will agree with this.

Now, the first type of tongues is when people are receiving the Holy Spirit, and they speak in
tongues as an evidence of their baptism.
There is another approach to tongues when you are in a prayer meeting. You need to know exactly
one thing: if you are in a prayer meeting when people are praying in the Spirit, never seek the
interpretation. The Scripture declares it clearly: “For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to
men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries” (1 Cor.
14:2).
You will find that in a prayer meeting people will pray and speak in the Spirit, but it will be unto
God and not for interpretation. Do not try to seek interpretation, for if you do you will find it is
wrong. Never under any circumstances expect tongues to be interpreted where it is continually
routine—the same and the same and the same. It is a spiritual language, but it is not a gift. What is
it? You will find that it is adoration. It happens when the soul has been in a real definite position
with God. Do not seek interpretation.
The third type of tongues is for interpretation. What type of tongues is this? “Different kinds of
tongues” (1 Cor. 12:10). What are these “different kinds of tongues”? They are languages with
perfect syllables. When a person gets up with a perfect language by the Spirit, you will find it is
decisive, it is instructive, it is lovely to hear, it is divine in

its appointment. It has to have interpretation because God is speaking to us in words that are not in
our native language.
Tongues are to bring forth revelation and power in the church, to save it from lack and from being
bound. Tongues and interpretation are for liberty among the people, to lift the saints and fill the
place with the glory. God will open this to you; you will see what it means to have people among
you full of the Spirit, and you will long to get the Spirit’s mind.
The Interpretation of Tongues
Now, what is the interpretation of tongues? Interpretation is given by the same Spirit who moved
the person with tongues. They are so moved by the power of the Spirit that they are in a place
where they know that what God was burning within had to come out.
It is a common occurrence for me, after I give an interpretation, to meet people at the door as I go
out who say, “Oh, that interpretation was lovely! I had it, too.”
Another will come and say, “Oh, that interpretation was beautiful! I had it, you know.”
I have had three in one meeting say that to me. “Oh, the interpretation was lovely! I had it.”
Is it true? No. There is no truth in it at all. Why?

No interpreter has the interpretation, not one. I haven’t got it myself. Then what do they have? They
have the spirit of it. They knew it was the spirit of it, and they knew it was according to the mind of
God. They got the sense of the knowledge that God was speaking and that it was the Spirit, and
they knew it was right. The interpreter never has it. Why? Because he is in the channel where the
Spirit is breathing every word. He does not get the word, the sentences and everything, ready-made.
The Spirit breathes the whole thing, and the interpreter speaks as the Spirit gives utterance (Acts
2:4). So it is as divine and as original as the throne of God.
I want to show you the difference between genuine and false tongues. There are some people who
get up and speak in tongues who give a little bit of tongues, and then a little more, and a little more,
and they repeat themselves. Never give interpretation to such foolishness.
There are other people who get up and profess to interpret it, and they stutter and stammer, giving a
word now and then. Is that interpretation? No. Do you think that the Holy Spirit is short of
language? If you are stammering and stuttering and giving a word of interpretation now and then,
don’t believe it. It is not of God. What is it, then? People are waiting while some word in their
minds comes forth, and they are giving you their minds. It is not interpretation.

I say all these things to save you from foolishness, to save you from people who want to be
somebody. The Holy Spirit has shown me that all the time He is helping me, I have to be nothing.
There is not a place where any man can ever be anything. It is in the death, union, and likeness of
Christ that He becomes all in all. If we have not gone to death in the baptism of the Spirit, it shows
me that we are altogether out of order.
The Spirit of the Lord has been speaking to you. I have felt the unction, I have realized the power, I
have been speaking as fast as I could get it out, and the Spirit has given everything. For once in our
lifetimes, we have been in the presence of the Holy Spirit. We have been where there has been the
manifestation of the glory, where God is speaking to our hearts, where He is bringing us to a place
of inhabitation in the Spirit.
We need to cherish this meeting as a holy meeting with God. See that you are built squarely on the
authority of God. See that your testimony on salvation, sanctification, the gifts, the baptism, is
biblical. Then you cannot be troubled by the Enemy. You will be above the Enemy; you will be able
to say to the Enemy, “Get thee behind me” (Matt. 16:23 kjv), and he will get!
What are you ready for now? Are you ready for anything? Don’t forget you have to go over the top.
The top of what? The top of yourself, the top of your opinions

and fancies and whims and foolish acts. You have to dethrone them; you have to have a biblical
building; you have to be in the Scriptures. “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power
and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Tim. 1:7).
When people say to me, “Oh, I have nervous symptoms; I have a nervous weakness, ” I know
immediately that only one thing is wrong. What is it? It is a lack of knowing the Word. “Perfect
love casts out fear.” And there is no torment, no fear, in love (1 John 4:18).
I want you to get the Word of God into your heart until the demon power has no power over you.
You are over the powers of fear. Then I want you to understand that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is
a love beyond any you have ever had; you are to have power after the Holy Spirit comes, and it is
power over the Enemy, over yourself, and over your human mind. Self has to be dethroned, Christ
has to be enthroned, and the Holy Spirit has to enlarge His position.
Go over the top and never slide down again the back way. If you go, you go forward, and you go
into victory from victory, triumphing over the Enemy, having liberty in your captivity (see
Ephesians 4:8), rightly rejoicing in the triumph of God.
Faith is the victory (1 John 5:4). Faith is the operation in

your heart. Faith is the stimulation of the life of the Master. When you stand in faith, you are in a
position in which God can take you to the place where you are “over all” (Luke 10:19) by the
power of God.
Believe that no power of the Enemy will have power over you. Rebuke him. Stand on the authority
of the Word and go forth into victory. I want you to be saved, healed, and blessed through what God’
s Word says